Part A) I have tacked on several (possibly 10 too many) tags to my About Nicole page. In an effort to create a more seamless brand I have updated my Twitter and LinkedIn pages to match my website’s design. The header is from a trip we took to NYC years ago while the personal image is from a hike. I feel the B&W and the color contrast one another to create an interesting balance that features my photo. I heeded the advice of Brian Dean’s infographic on SEO as much as I could think to. I chose to link to the places I have studied/worked to create a more interactive page while keeping the length I would normally shy away from to make skimmable content. I am seriously fighting instinct here.
Part B) Keeping the SEO theme for this week if you Google just “SEO” Google Support is definitely represented heavily, but not until the final results on the page. Changing the terms to “SEO for personal website” brought me to “Personal Branding” which is essentially what I was going for in evening-out my social media and attempting a more cohesive online presence. A Forbes article from 2016 makes an excellent point regarding trust of readers: “Modern consumers have a natural distaste for corporations, which are frequently seen as greedy, manipulative, and faceless.” This is striking a chord with me. As I think about what space to study for this course I am reminded of the endorsements that “mommy bloggers” receive from corporate sponsors. How does this play into an understanding of “User Trust”? Are they more trustworthy products when your favorite blogger mentions them or generates a catchy skit with the product at the forefront?
Another resources (a lengthy one!) is AudienceBloom. Here I have found a long list of ways to work on your SEO.
Part C) I’m not sure if this is a good thing, but I definitely didn’t want my e-mail sitting on this site. So, I have implemented the Contact form but I also linked to my e-mail in the footer with my social media links. I used Google’s reCAPTCHA to protect my information from bots.
Part D) N/A
